I’m sitting in the dining room of a cottage in the heart of the village in Felpham with Mike & Judy Armson, who is the great great great niece of Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), stamp pioneer and creator of the post office as we know it today. A remarkable man indeed, in the true tradition of Victoria entrepreneurs, he was an inventor, teacher, a governor in Australia when it took months to get there by boat; his brothers were also pioneers in prison reform, also an MP, and another, Edwin, invented the envelope!

Sir Arthur’s great triumph was to make the sender pay for the stamp (previously the receiver had to, which was extremely inefficient and open to fraud), and to make it affordable. Business expanded massively and letter-writing became a daily for of communication.

Judy’s magnificent archive, after years of research, is extensive; books, photographs, folios, press clippings of not just Sir Rowland himself, but also the generations which followed; there are stories everywhere you look – her mother and father’s time in India, for example, and not least her own. Hovering over all the offspring is the legend himself. Judy doesn’t believe that his achievements were passed on through the family, but there were occasional moments; mum thought she might find a penny black hidden away in some dusty corner – in mint condition today it would be worth thousands of pounds.

Sir Rowland is buried in Westminster Abbey; He’s remembered worldwide too. Judy showed me a book by Mr. Zhang which was a best seller in China. Mr Zhang lives in South Ruislip. Everywhere in our families there are stories waiting to be told. Judy brought her story alive in the unique way only a family member can.